Who Inspired Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’ Space Visions? w/ Fred Scharmen

Paris Marx is joined by Fred Scharmen to discuss Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’ visions for space colonization, the inspiration they draw from the work of Wernher von Braun and Gerard O’Neill, and what’s wrong with basing our future on those ideas.

Fred Scharmen is the author of Space Forces: A Critical History of Life in Outer Space. He teaches architecture and urban design at Morgan State University’s School of Architecture and Planning and is the co-founder of the Working Group on Adaptive Systems. Follow Fred on Twitter at @sevensixfive.

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Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

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Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris wrote about the billionaire space race and Jeff Bezos’ vision for space colonization.
• Wernher von Braun was a Nazi before becoming chief architect of NASA’s Saturn V rocket. He appeared in a 1955 Disney program about space flight, but his past was also criticized, including in a song by Tom Lehrer.
• Elon Musk has cited Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” as an inspiration and Jeff Bezos saved The Expanse when it was cancelled.
• Jeff Bezos’ ideas about space colonization come directly from Gerard O’Neill’s vision of space colonies floating in space.
• Adam Mann asked in the New Yorker whether Mars was really ours for the taking.
• The Just Space Alliance presents an alternative to the billionaire framing of space.

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